O'Briens intent

O'Brien in writing in The Things The Carried about his friends in the Vietnam War. He is creating a real person for the reader inner eye, they seem to be alive. Even though he doesn't write a full story, he creates little memories of the persons, and with every little short story he is adding a bit more information for the reader, to complete the image. He wants that the reader to "dream along [...] and [that] memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head." (O'Brien 218) His intention is to keep memories alive.